Tuesday 6 February 2018

No. 39 The Bitter Springs - Its Business

Over the years, few people have had a greater influence on my musical tastes than my friend Mark, or as he's known to the Twitter masses @pomfob. Since the late 1980s we've been applauding, informing or deriding each others musical acquisitions almost constantly. An important part of this process was the mix-tape. I still have every one of the C90s that Mark carefully curated for me back in the day, and I'll wager he still has mine. Some of the music he exposed me to had had a huge impact on my listening; I never really 'got' Wire until he recorded Mercy for me, from the peerless Chairs Missing. Other songs proved less significant but still provided some small joys.

The next single is definitely in the latter category. This is the only product I've every owned by Teddington's The Bitter Springs, though they have an extensive back catalogue stretching back to 1995. For those who don't know their work, think I, Ludicrous, Animals That Swim or Half Man Half Biscuit. Its Business is a fabulous little indie tune, with deeply cynical lyrics and a wry sense of humour. I particularly like the final couplet;

I've got the words but they won't come
Unless the band give up on their percentage

I'm pleased to see that The Bitter Springs are still going concern; they seem to have become Vic Goddard's backing band and played that bastion of long-in-the-tooth indie bands The Lexington last year with the likes of the Monochrome Set and The Band of Holy Joy.



Saturday 13 January 2018

No. 38 The Birthday Party - The Friend Catcher

OK, so it's been far too long since I've done one of these. It's EARLY January, the weather is foul and the kids are deeply involved in their iPads, so this is seems like a good opportunity to add another post.

And what a single to return on. I picked this up as a teenager in Plymouth, I knew of the Birthday Party but didn't know any of their music, so this was a bit of a gamble. If memory serves it was, even in 1985, a fairly collectable single, seeing as it was a fairly early 4AD release (AD 12), but because the sleeve was pretty battered, it was a fairly cheap buy. Thirty five years later it still sounds remarkable; the song opens with a 30 second blast of howling feedback, which reappears throughout the song and returns as it fades into blackness. It also contains one of the finest guitar riffs of any Birthday Party song, or indeed any goth track. Cave is also on fine form, delivering a typically theatrical performance.

You also get not one but two decent b-sides, the Roland S. Howard penned Waving My Arms and a cover of Gene Vincent's Catman; here's the original for a compare/contrast moment.